Medical Exam Day

View from our room

Inside the White Swan Hotel

(aka The White Stork, because so many adoptive families stay here)

Amazing Jade sculptures in the hotel lobby

Walking to the medical exam, schoolkids were exercising.

Cooling off in the hot, humid clinic

This was after much of the crowd had dissipated and I could actually

extract my camera from my backpack.

My least favorite place....

I would love to see Rush driving one of these little cars.

Adoption Barbie!!!

Passed out after a long morning.

Today, all we had on the agenda was getting Rylie's visa picture taken and having her medical exam. We thought those would be quick and easy....we thought wrong!

This morning we had a great breakfast at our hotel. It was such a nice change of pace from our other hotel....we loved it! There are so many adoptive families here, they have an entire little area set up for all the families. It was so cool to look around at the kids with their new families! We found out that Rylie loves oatmeal. Finally, I have a kid that will eat oatmeal.

We met up with our group of about 8 families from our agency and went to the photo shop to get the kids' pictures taken. While we were there we dropped off film from the camera we had sent in a care package months ago. They returned it to us on our Gotcha Day, so we are hoping to get some good insight into her life before we met her.

After we were done, we walked to the medical clinic. I hardly have the words to describe this place. I think I said it was like Patient First on crack....about a thousand people crammed into a small building, everyone running around like crazy, pushing and shoving, no apparent organization at all. Seriously, if this was what health care was like in the States (and hopefully it will not become this way) there would be a revolt. There was no privacy. As people were being examined, other people were waiting in the same room! We were there for over 3 hours....all for about 10 minutes of care. She got weighed and measured, had her temperature taken, got a quick look into her ears, nose and throat, and had a 2 minute physical. Then we paid for the exam and shots. She needed 6. Such a bummer..... But let me tell you, this girl was amazing. She did awesome just about the entire time we were there (thank God for Gerber puffs). It was hot and crowded and overwhelming, and she was great. Even for the shots, she cried, but was fine within about a minute. Rush stopped and got her ice cream on the way home, which she happily scarfed down and now she's sleeping peacefully.

We came back to our room to find the infamous "Adoption Barbie." Mattel sponsors a great playroom in our hotel and gives all adoptive families staying here a Barbie memento.....it is so cute!

I included some pictures of the hotel, but haven't gotten a chance to take many pictures of the island....hopefully this afternoon we will have a chance. The hotel is on a little island that looks a lot like Charleston, SC (and has the humidity to match) right beside a river. We love it! In fact, we have a great river view from our hotel room. Our guide said it used to be a colonial town. It's funny walking around because there are statues everywhere of obviously Caucasian people....in China. It almost doesn't even seem like we're in China anymore.

Anyway, that's all for now....we're thankful to have some downtime this evening to go explore.